Maybe it was a post-Christmas hangover. More likely, it was the surprise gift Chicago State belatedly presented the Ohio State men’s basketball team.

“I’m sure we did surprise ’em,” Chicago State coach Tracy Dildy said. “I’m sure they watched a lot of film on us and they hardly saw any zone (defense). Our game plan was to play a lot of zone and see if we could get them to settle for jump shots. We were willing to take our chances if they would have just kept shooting jump shots.”

The 10th-ranked Buckeyes obliged for more than 12 minutes yesterday at Value City Arena, hoisting about half their shots from three-point range and scoring 16 points, only two more than Chicago State.

After three timeouts, they finally adjusted, attacked inside the zone and began pulling away for an 87-44 victory in their final nonconference game of the season.

Deshaun Thomas had 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists to lead five Buckeyes who scored in double figures. LaQuinton Ross had 15 points, Lenzelle Smith Jr. 13 and Amedeo Della Valle 11. Aaron Craft had 10 points and six assists. Della Valle had all of his points and Ross 13 of his after halftime, when Ohio State (10-2) outscored the Cougars 50-20.

Quinton Pippen, a nephew of former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, led Chicago State (3-12) with 12 points.

“It’s really easy against a zone to start chucking up threes and taking the first easy shot you get when there’s still 28 seconds on the shot clock,” Craft said.

“We got kind of antsy at times and were taking good shots, but (could we have gotten) a better one later on in the possession? I think we did a much better job of that as we started adjusting and started attacking the gaps more and shooting more layups, shooting more shots that are a lot easier to make. That kind of gets you in a rhythm against a zone to make the longer shots.”

Ohio State shot 56.9 percent for the game and finished 8 of 17 from three-point range after missing seven of its first eight.

Leading 16-14 with 7:34 left in the first half, the Buckeyes came out of a timeout and scored on 10 of their last 11 possessions of the half by driving the ball into the zone. The 21-10 run gave them a 37-24 lead at the break, and they quickly expanded it to 21 points by scoring on five of their first six possessions after halftime.

“That was something we emphasized (in practice) the last couple days, trying to get the ball into the paint,” coach Thad Matta said. “The zone presented some avenues.”

Sophomore center Amir Williams, who had eight rebounds and two blocked shots in the Buckeyes’ most recent game, a loss to Kansas a week earlier, made his first career start in place of Evan Ravenel, who had started the previous 11 games.

Matta said Williams earned it by practicing well since the players returned from a brief Christmas break on Wednesday.

“Truth be told, Evan didn’t practice well,” Matta said. “Evan being the only senior on this team, we hold him to a pretty high standard in terms of what we expect from him day in, day out.”

Ravenel responded with five points and a career-high 10 rebounds in 16 minutes. Williams had four points and four rebounds in 15 minutes.

“I’ll be honest, I love what (Ravenel) gave us off the bench,” Matta said.

But he did not say whether he will keep Williams in the starting lineup when the Buckeyes begin their Big Ten schedule on Wednesday night against Nebraska at Value City Arena. They play at No. 12 Illinois on Saturday.